A Web of Ice
by EnchantedBlood
Summary: This is a Protector of the Small fic. What will happen when Keladry get's lost during a blizzard and seperated from the Own? Will they found her? And if so, will she ever be the same?
1. A Foul Wind Blows This Way

**Disclaimer:** _I don't honestly believe that I must tell you this, because doubtless you already know. I do not own any of Tamora Pierce's creations. But for the sake of protocol and tradition, I feel I must._

She ran, she had to keep going. Had to find them! Where was she? The sudden blizzard that had driven in was still raging. Leaving her nothing short of blinded. Kel could barely see her hand in front of her face, and the fact that she was being blown about like a leaf at the sudden gust of icy wind, wasn't helping much.

The sharp ice particles stung Kel's face, as the bitter gusts drove her further and further away from her knight master and the King's Own…

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"KEL!" "Keeeelllll" "Kel!" several voices could be heard searching for their commander's squire. Loudest of them all was Lord Raoul of Goldenlake, a great friend and leader to all who knew him. He was by far the most concerned, though Dom was trailing by only a tad.

"**_KEL!_**" Raoul's voice boomed over once again. "Mithros! Where could she be?! One second she's right next to me, leading Hoshi by the reins, the next she's completely disappeared!"

"I know what you mean sir, she was _right _in front of me…But that storm front that blew in was pretty strong, I'm sure she just strayed a bit off course! She'll be fine, she _is _Kel after all. She's not as fragile as the noble ladies, in case you hadn't noticed." Dom tried reassuring him, but scarcely managed to lighten the mood.

Raoul gave a weak smile and said, "Your right! If anyone's capable of surviving in the middle of the woods in the dead of winter with spidrens and all other sorts of immortals crawling about it's Kel." But his words didn't sound at all comforting.

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Kel was barely keeping hold of Hoshi's reins when she more felt, rather than heard, the cracking of ice. Which could only mean one thing: _she was no longer on solid ground._ '_Oh no! Goddesses above please help me! This can't **possibly** be good!'_ were her last thoughts as her feet crashed through the brittle veil of ice…

2 Weeks later, Letter to Alanna of Pirate' Swoop and Olau 

**(Sent by a messenger bird of Daine's)**

_Dear Lioness,_

_We've searched for weeks, even got first and second company out here! But so far there haven't been many signs. We found her dagger a few days back, but she could have easily lost it when the storm blew in. I know you're worried sick, as am I. It makes my heart pain when I think of her out there all alone.---WAIT! What am I saying?! Bad Dom! I'm not trying to make this sound hopeless, but I pray we don't search in vain. My apprehension grows daily, and I can only imagine how Neal will take it when he finds out. I pray that you break the news to him gently. I'd tell him myself, but as you've noticed, I'm not exactly tactful with words. Neal, as I'm sure you've noticed, is pretty sensitive, despite his biting sarcasm at times. And Kel is one of his very best friends, so…you know…On another note, Lord Raoul is also taking this pretty hard, he feels that if something were to happen to his squire, he would be to blame. I've tried to steer him away from this line of thinking, reassuring him that nothing is going to happen to Keladry. But I can see he has steadily weakening faith in this, especially as the days pass by without any signs. He's thoroughly convinced she's lying in a ditch somewhere, frozen to death, or her body has been consumed by spidrens, or worse…I probably shouldn't be voicing these aloud; I might prove to jinx myself yet! My apologies, I'm beginning to ramble. Just try to ease the whole situation on my cousin gradually and with care. The last thing we need is for Neal to have an emotional breakdown at a time like this. Maybe you should even keep it from him, cause all this fuss and buss might be for nothing after all…but I'll leave this assessment up to you._

_May Mithros guide you,_

_and Goddess bless,_

_--Dom--_

Alanna read and re-read the letter. Making sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her. Kel was _still_ missing? She'd failed to let Neal in on the whole disaster, _No. It isn't a disaster…yet. Kel's going to show up soon and laugh at everyone for being so concerned._ At least that's what she preferred to think. The truth was, that if she told Neal, he'd be worried sick, literally. And he'd want to go back immediately, which just wasn't possible. The roads were snowed in already, and passage to the north was _not_ an option. But Neal was well known for taking rather _rash_ actions at times, and she couldn't risk him getting injured or even worse…killed. No, she couldn't tell Neal, not yet. _Maybe when I've got more information. When I'm…sure…_No, Neal would _not_ find out.

A/N: I know this was **_VERY_** short, but don't worry, because I had to end it like this in order for the next chapter to run smoothly. I hope you liked it, no matter how short it may have been. It was more like a prologue anyways. And I'm betting no one is even going to find this worthy of his or her time to read, let alone review. But PLEASE do! Review, no matter how short or pitiful they may seem, really are encouraging. They let you know that at least _someone_ though your fic was good enough to comment on. Thanks again. And see you next time.


	2. Never Forgotten

Top of Form

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

**Marquis de Vauvenargues**

Bottom of Form

Chapter Two

Itwas 2 years, to the day, since Kel's disappearance. She had literally vanished without a trace. Excepting the precious few leads that they had had, which all ultimately lead to yet more dead-ends. The last sign had been anything but heartening.

As the snows had melted away, the ground had become little more than a mire of sludge. Making it extremely difficult to move on horseback _or_ foot. They'd been forced to call off the search for a time, and head back towards the palace. They were exhausted, wet, and had been searching for months on end.

It was during this short break period that word had reached them that something had been found. The Third Company road out immediately, with Raoul at the head, who was just waiting for an excuse to pummel anything that got in his way.

They hadn't received much information about what exactly had been found, it might have had nothing to do with Keladry. It wouldn't have been the first time, for sure, that they'd followed a false lead.

So they'd rushed to the small village of Aerean asswift as aleaf on the wind. But the news that awaited them, was far from good. Apparently a local farmer's young son and friend, had been playing seek and run at the edges of the forest and had strayed farther into the woods than intended. While they'd been lost, one of the boys had tripped over what he thought had been a root. But on further inspection, turned out to be bones. The bones of a horse, Keledry's horse, Hoshi.

That had been over 5 months ago, and almost everyone was giving up all hope of ever finding Kel, alive _or _dead. She had been missing for two years now.

Two years was a deadline of sorts. If a noble goes missing, there is a certain timeline that is to be followed. Search parties may be sent out to look for the noble, two years is the maximum amount of time they are aloud to be sent out while still in service of their king. After two years have passed, the king is forced to officially proclaim them dead. By law, the king is required to declare the death publicly, and sign a death certificate at the end of a departure ceremony.

There were exceptions to this rule of course, if there had been relatively recent evidence of the noble's whereabouts, the deadline could be postponed, or at the very least, pushed back. But this was not to be in Kel's case.

Raoul and Dom's dread, as well as the rest of Kel's close friends, had been increasing by the hour as the cut-off date had drawn closer, and yet closer still.

And now…that day had finally come. Keladry's death would be legitimately affirmed at dusk. All of Corus would be attending the funeral service, with the empty casket… A few had been asked to speak, a shortepitaph in remembrance and honor of Kel. Of those who had been asked, only four had accepted: Raoul of Goldenlake, Nealan of Queenscove, Lord Wyldon of Cavall, and Domitan of Masbolle. Of those who haddeclined had been her mother, who was too overcome with grief and could not possibly cope with a public speech. Her father chose to stay with his wife, to make the service easier for the both of them.

The speeches were to be given at the "departure" ceremony, an hour before sunset. What would her friends say for their parting words? What could they say? They had waited and hoped for _so long_…but…now the time had arrived, that all of them had so profusely denied could ever happen…

**---With Nealan of Queenscove; Squire's Quarters---**

Tears slowly rolled down his face, as he fought to hold them back. But it was a fruitless battle, doomed to failure from the start. He couldn't hold them back any longer, if he didn't let the tears fall he'd lose all traces left of his sanity!

In the end, his fragile composure was shattered, and he no longer attempted to hold back the heart-wrenching sobs that wracked through his body.

It was a long while before he was able to cease his weeping. He was exhausted, and could barely breathe. Neal wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and huddle on his bed and pray for this hellish nightmare, to end, to will himself to wake up…But that wasn't possible…no…not possible at all…

It had been about two and a half hours ago, that he'd finally received word, of what he'd been dreading since the start of this torturous hell. It had come in the form of a soft knock at his door, and the soft scratching sound of a note being slid underneath it. At the time, he'd been reading a rather inspiring book of poetry, written by Andric Sanders. Being fully enraptured by his book, he hadn't bothered to fetch the note. So the message lay forgotten on the cool stone floor, with the small mark of the imperial seal, imprinted in blood red wax.

Eventually the need to use the latrine brought Neal out of Sanders' enchanting world of peculiar philosophy. As he passed by the doorway, he spotted the small letter, and froze. This—this _wasn't_ what he _thought_ it was…was it?! Panic took over without delay; he frantically snatched the note from the ground, and in a frenzy, nearly ripped it in half. Forcing himself to calm down ---for the most part--- he carefully hooked his fingernails underneath the wax seal, gently pealing it back, and unfolding the letter with shaking hands.

This is what it read:

_Dear Nealan of Queenscove,_

_We are sorrowful to inform you that the bereavement ceremony of the recently departed Keladry of Mindelan, will be held at dusk this evening. We sincerely wish that you would honor her with your presence, and request that you say a few words in her 'membrance, if possible._

_Thank-you,_

_Sir Turomat of Wellam_

He'd had the oddest sensation, during that timeless moment, reading that note; it was as if ice water were pouring over him. At first all he had felt was cold shock, and then a sort of numbing sensation.But he was completely unprepared for the weight of total anguish, as the realization finally reached his soul. That feeling of utter and complete despair that _still _threatened to suffocate him.

Neal slowly uncurled his body, and deftly stood up from his position on the floor, where he had fallen, after reading the note. He shakily walked to his desk and grabbed a spare parchment and a fresh quill and ink. His eyes were tired and bloodshot as he began to sluggishly write, but soon furiously scribbling his thoughts down. For all intentions and purposes, he was dead to the rest of the world for that time, and was writing for Kel. And Kel alone…

_A/N: I hope you guys liked it. It took me forever to write and rewrite this until I was finally satisfied! And just so you don't get ahead of me, Kel is not completely out of the picture. Since this is a Kel fic, it would make sense that she was actually in it. Although I can't say it's not tempting to kill off the main character in the first chapter! Lol. Just kidding! So if Kel's still in the fic, then is she dead? Well, I'll let you do the math! I don't want to spoil the storyline, so I'm not going to shout out the answers to **all** of your questions! Thanks to all who reviewed! _


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